" Meyer Lazar is the poet of color. With it, he managed to three dimensions from two . He painted landscapes and fantastic landscapes of paradise . Meyer Lazar is the painter of happiness, which exorcice enemy forces that affect our destiny. This triumph of pessimism , this new evil of the century . This is a Jewish painter and Latin painter. Fabulous paintings of nature are not accurate documents, cold and objectives. These are lyrical interpretations , illuminations , or rather mirages . Meyer Lazar built purely imaginary pictorial space. Its blades , its twilight and nocturnal, or night effects , are bewitching visions air , symphonies of red gold, pink coral, emerald green , violet amethyst, turquoise blue and yellow tortoiseshell blonde. Her lovers frolicking couples on funds hills with their bodies, less human than divine , wed spontaneously sinuous contours. "( George Waldemar )

"Painting is not an image. The painting is poetry. "( Lazar Meyer )

Romania (1923-1944) [edit | edit the code]
Meyer Lazar, whose real name Marcel Lazarovici , was born October 4, 1923 at Galatz in Romania. Immediately after his birth, his family moved to Bucharest, where Lazar was raised . From his childhood , he painted and drew extensively , mainly carbon . He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest , one of the most brilliant of Eastern Europe , and won several awards for painting.

In 1941 , Romania entered the war alongside Germany against the USSR. Lazar was sent to a forced labor camp in Transnistria , which he fled in 1944. He started for Bucharest and made most of the journey on foot , hiding his Jewish origins not to be deported. He came home with serious foot injuries and hid his uncle . "Certificate " allowing him to immigrate to Palestine, he waited a long time, then came his wounds healed . Lazar sailed immediately for Haifa. He was 21 .

Israel (1944-1950) [edit | edit the code]
Meyer Lazar remained in Israel from 1944 to 1950, and he returned only during a trip in 1967, then to be buried there in 1995. However Promised Land and sun imprinted forever in his heart . Closely related to these landscapes, still continued to evoke in his paintings from the depths of his memory.

Upon his arrival in Haifa, Lazar was incorporated in Kibbutz Kfar Glickson . There he initiated work in the fields and learned Hebrew . But it will not feel out of place. His imperious desire to engage in the paint did not coincide with the needs of the community of the kibbutz. Then he joined the ranks of the " Supervisors " ( gaffirs ) , and he remained with his unit in Atlit . In 1948, after the proclamation of independence, Lazar was paid in the Israeli Defense Forces and participated in the capture of Jaffa. While he remained in the city , painting in his little room , living doing odd jobs . Then he joined the studio of Aharon Avni school in Tel Aviv. Studio Avni was the bastion of the Parisian Jewish expressionism , but it was transformed into a conservative academic institution. The Avni and guidance on colors, limited to browns and monochrome Corot old game designs, left little room for personal expression. They aroused biting criticism among those students who were tempted by a more modern approach to art , including Lazar .

With thirty other artists , so he left for The Studio Avni " Studia " at its creation by Yehezkel Streichman and Avigdor Stematsky . It was full of enthusiasm , excitement and love of painting period . Members Studia painted many landscapes , still lifes , nudes and portraits. They came to paint landscapes near the Yarkon River and Ramat -Gan , Akko , Nazareth, Safed , Jaffa, and the studio artists posed for each other . They organized numerous exhibitions , including in 1949 at the Café Kassit .

The arrival of Marcel Janco among teachers Studia marked the end of a cycle in the life of Lazar . Janco , Romanian-born as Lazar had been his teacher in Bucharest. It was at that time part of the group of " New Horizons " , who wanted to free Israeli painting from its local character and place in the European art scene . In October 1949 , the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Israel instituted a prize for young artists. Meyer Lazar was one of the winners through his picture in the old city of Jaffa. Shortly after , he left Paris for Israel - as most local artists - fleeing the cultural gap and the state of isolation in which they were since the War of Independence.

Montparnasse The Roaring Twenties (1950-1969) [edit | edit the code]
In 1950, Meyer Lazar sailed for Paris , where he was welcomed by former members of Studia . At that time, Paris was the artistic dominant center and the attraction of all the painters in the world center. Lazar quickly became involved in Parisian life , from his days at La Coupole and Select, and became part of the scene Montparnasse. He managed to fend for live working as a painter, and he settled in Rue Richer (9th arr. ) Studio. He befriended other foreign artists in Paris , he saw in cafes.

It was at this time that he took for the artist name " Meyer Lazar ." Meier in Hebrew means " light," "he who enlightens "; Lazar is a diminutive of Lazarovici , as did many artists at the time (such as Marc Chagall, who was actually called Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov ) .

In January 1963 , David Giladi , art critic isréalien Ma'ariv daily , wrote: " Lazar , although in Paris for over ten years, always painted Israeli landscapes , the great sun of Israel, radiating in all its glory , palms upright, dry expanses , lonely bush . (...) Lazar is a very modest young man , and also very smart. It does not take a lot of illusions. " In Paris , there are always thousands of painters, and always among them , only a few geniuses have emerged , he said. There are always a few who become "fashionable ." Writing about them , we buy their paintings, and a generation later they are forgotten , there remains no trace . " "

The cursed artist (1970-1995) [edit | edit the code]
Lazar assiduously visiting galleries and exhibitions and sales rooms of the Hotel Drouot , to which he went so obsessively . Unable to make a real income of his own paintings , he became fascinated with art sales . His extensive knowledge of the commercial value of works was noticed by collectors and art dealers , who received his knowledge by asking advice on the quality of the works and the advisability of investing in them. To force it ends up embittered , and his romantic conception of painting suffers. His feverish mind was engaging in speculation about the death of art , and for long periods he no longer painted at all. However, Lazar believed heavily in his talent, and he always manages to regain his confidence and his work despite some periods of discouragement .

The painter Kadishman Menashe , who met every time he came to Paris , reports that : " Lazar had seen all the exhibitions in Paris last forty- five years. It would be deprived of meals to buy the catalog the work of a painter. Once he told me he was tired. " Look, I went to the grave of Modigliani and I read : Here lies Modigliani, and : Here lies Brancusi ; they all rely , and myself still working . " Meyer was a survivor of the romantic bohemian period . He quoted me Sartre : " Here in Paris , we fertilize each other - poets, writers, whores, painters, singers : the sap of life. " It was a wonderful and innocent painter, a different person other . He lived only for art. He breathed art, and nothing else interested . View paintings Meyer, and you will see a sensitive and beautiful person , a wonderful and true painter . "

The greatest friend was Moshe Lazar - Naim , editor phonographic , producer and director, but also a humanist philosopher who spent his life designing the foundations of a universal brotherly thought. Moshe - Naim , whom he had met in 1951, stayed with him , he arranged a workshop to work and supported himself for nearly twenty -five years . In the 1970s , he invited Lazar in his house Bièvre , and this is where the artist painted his famous series of ten paintings on the Song of Songs. One of the paintings in this series was later copied to a different medium and became a spectacular tapestry which was purchased by a large collector. November 28, 1975 , a series of etchings of Lazar on the Song of Songs was offered for sale in the catalog of the Hotel Drouot . Two years later , one of the drawings in this series appeared in the first of a number of France -Israel Friendship page.

Following these successes, Meyer Lazar received a notice in the Bénézit , the famous critic and documentary dictionary of painters, sculptors, designers and writers . Here it is: "Jewish painter and Latin painter. Latin by his country of origin: Romanian countryside ; Jewish because Israel is his second home , the one he has chosen. It was also in France he received his training and he found his first painter friends . Painter of fantastic landscapes , his compositions are lyrical comments to sacred texts that inspire in general. In 1960 he showed a series of paintings Paris with the sun theme. In 1972, still in Paris , the Jewish Cultural Center , he showed an important series of paintings inspired by the Song of Songs , which , for him, is a love poem that the Creator is dedicating us through the voice of King Solomon : the women of Song , is the land of Israel restored, and the beloved is reviving his country wandering Jew millennium . Waldemar George Meyer Lazar wrote : "Celestial Painter Meyer Lazar built purely imaginary pictorial space. Its blades , its twilight and nocturnal, or night effects , are bewitching visions air . " Works in museums in Tel Aviv , Jerusalem, Ein- Harod , Eilat . "

At his death in January 1995 , Lazar was 71 years old . He was the last Jewish painter of the School of Paris .

Exposures [edit | edit the code]
April-May 1954 , the Salon des Independants at the Grand Palais .
1959 Salon des Independants , including Anonymous Love, She and him and Jaffa at dusk ( 1959).
1960 Salon des Independants , including two birds, freshwater and saltwater (1958).
March 1960 exhibition " Between two suns" at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery , which suggested that his works , especially between two suns.
1961 Salon Expressionists , including Red Sun on Arab village (1961).
1960 group exhibition that was sent to Japan. The French and David Messer Morchedai Moreh were part of the artists .
1964 Salon des Independants , including Days in the Sun ( Spring ) (1964 ), also exhibited at the Israel Art Foundation.
1965 Salon des Independants , including three butterflies in the forest .
1966 Salon des Independants , including legendary Landscapes ( 1966).
1967 group exhibition which was held in Eilat, Israel .
March-April 1968 , the Salon des Independants , including The Edge of the Sea of ​​Galilee (1968).
1968 Salon Expressionists , including " Eylath " ( Turkish bath ) (1967).
1970 Salon des Independants , including Red Sun (1970).
A profoundly original work [edit | edit the code]
For Meyer Lazar, "painting is poetry ," " the poetic gold." He considered himself a painter - poet. He aspired to freeze time and space in its color palette - he divided into three categories : hot , cold and neutral.

Lazar fell in love with Israeli landscapes in the late 1940s. The most obvious reason for this time in his work is that of the Arab village, which impressed him far more than the landscapes of the kibbutz and the dense agglomeration of buildings Jaffa and its fishing port, he preferred the views of Tel Aviv. He was charmed by the harbor with boats in front of the old city of Jaffa. He painted the Kinneret lake surrounded by numerous palm trees, and he especially loved the ancient city of Safed and the Galilee mountains , he assimilated the curves of the desired woman. The cities of Jaffa, Tiberias , Safed and around continued to resonate in his work for many years , despite the geographical distance between the artist of these places.

Israeli sun dazzles Lazar and influenced his work for the rest of his life. It plays a prominent role in most of its work. Often , two suns appear , dividing the canvas into two intensifying secret activity born of the encounter between the two stars. At times , the only moon shines in the sky, and sometimes pale or red blood, she mingles with the setting sun lights up the night in shades of blues and greens .

The characters that populate the canvases of Lazar early years are characterized by a demonstrative minimalism. They dance in terms of color angular rhythms, geometric , sometimes triangular , showing the influence of Raoul Dufy or Joan Miró, with a touch of oriental fragrance .

Over time , Orientalism Lazar gradually gave way to other influences. Attendance French painters and Jewish artists of the School of Paris did change his work. Landscapes of Israel were mixed with biblical and Jewish themes. At the same time , he appropriated many grounds of French painting : clowns , masks, musicians , birds and exotic animals , mirrors - and , above all , the figure of the woman , which is the leitmotif of his work. Flowers, interiors and still lifes also form a significant proportion of subjects that caught his attention. We should also mention the influence of Japanese painter Hokusai (1760-1849) , which deeply impressed Lazar . He was very influenced by Chagall finally , he greatly admired the colors, and the philosophy and symbolism of his friend Moshe - Naim .

But the general theme of the work of Meyer Lazar is love. In 1950 he associated metaphorically women to land, and in his work it always appears with generous forms. In his paintings , the man and woman merge, their two faces melted into one, wrapping their bodies to each other in a harmonious curves. The left part of the face that belongs to the woman is united to her lover's face , right, a common profile. They mingle in facing or intertwining in positions of love, and always create a dialogue with the landscape that surrounds them. Terrestrial silhouettes Lazar become inseparable from the landscape full . This is an extraordinarily original painting.

In 1970 , Lazar was injured in a car accident ; he had a broken right arm, the one with which he painted ... Given the limited capacity of his hand , he then focused on drawing. He carried pencil and paper in cafes , where he spent hours drawing . He then developed a wonderful art of lightness he expressed in hundreds of pencil drawings , mostly of love silhouettes. Light and dreamlike , her lovers loaded with symbols appear to float in the air.

In the last decade of his life, paintings Lazar became more complex and rich in symbols. His painting was, in his own words, "atmospheric", "lyrical" and "poetic." He had a very personal way to relate to the history of art and culture: he referred in his paintings are so deliberately blurred. Thus, it frequently incorporated in his paintings the figure of Charlie Chaplin - he greatly admired. It appears in some paintings along with Rembrandt, Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci, his own self-portrait, and still the figure of the woman and the eternal sun ...